BANGOR (AP) – A Levant woman is in jail on a felony theft charge of embezzling $60,000 or more from a nonprofit agency in Old Town that assists families with foster and adopted children.

Police arrested Katherine Ratliff, 39, after workers at Adoptive & Foster Families of Maine discovered discrepancies in the agency’s accounts.

Ratliff, who has been in Maine for about a year, has been implicated in similar crimes in other states and is currently wanted in South Carolina for financial identity theft, said Old Town Detective Tom Adams.

A search of Ratliff’s apartment in Levant turned up evidence that she may have used money from the agency to buy clothing and furnishings for her apartment, pay her rent and finance a car, Adams said. She is being held at the Penobscot County Jail.

Adoptive & Foster Families of Maine is a small firm that acts as a liaison between adoptive and foster families and the Maine Department of Health and Human Services. Bette Hoxie, the agency’s director, said Ratliff handled bookkeeping, filing and payroll tasks.

Hoxie said the stolen money amounted to a large portion of the annual budget.

, and that the alleged theft had virtually wiped out year-end funds.

“Yesterday was the first time in 10 years that I have been unable to pay rent,” Hoxie said.